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Subject: US Marines and British Infantry
BRoger    11/5/2004 5:25:59 AM
How does quality of a US Marine compare with that of the standard British Infantry soldier? I ask because I find it interesting that the Black Watch Regiment in Iraq (British infantry) are replacing US Marines in their role near Baghdad.
 
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joe6pack    A request   1/25/2007 6:03:08 PM
Can we please, please, put an end to these type of threads on the infantry board.  For a while, this board was more or less free of the my favorite nationality will beat up your favorite nationality and top ten lists of nonsense.
 
Or if a comparison must be made, can we at least stick to things that can be quantified and stay away from things like "because everyone knows ..... is the best" (really? everyone?)  or "...... sucks"  (really? and you know this because your cousins, uncles, friend once heard it from some guy that was maybe in the infantry)
 
Ok.. end rant.. 
 
 
 
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GOP       1/25/2007 8:03:11 PM

"The arrogance of you British guys amazes me.  US Marines are very good, and  you would probably not be able to tell a difference in any ability if the two units had a FTX together. "

 

 

But it doesn't stop arrogant Americans telling us they have the best navy, airforce, special forces and whatever else in the world.

 

The British military is the best in the world.  The US just uses overwhelming numbers and firepower.  As long as you  lot just bomb everything from the air in Iraq and Afghanistan then you are happy.  I'd love to see how it performs if it was the same size as the British military.



These kind of posts are so uneducated and immature. Americans who say that are just as bad as the British posters who say they have the best military. Do you see any of the guys who actually serve in the military saying things like: "we are the best, nation x sucks"? No, because they usually have worked together and/or really respect each other. So shutup, you are sounding like a little girl ("We are better than you")
 
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BasinBictory       1/25/2007 9:11:02 PM
Sheesh - what a gawdawful pissing match this turns into. There's lots of factors that go into a unit's or an organization's effectiveness in battle, but one of the biggest factors seems to be time spent training and development of combat leaders.
 
Perhaps someone could come up with a table that shows unit expenditures with regard to training, actual number of days spent training in the field, personnel turnover within the units (or lack thereof) etc. etc. Then we might have a more objective discussion than what we see here!
 
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Mike From Brielle       1/26/2007 11:17:20 AM
Fuel for the fire.  These are the men whom these Englishmen are replacing and tell us they are far superior to.  I hope for thier sake they will never have to live up to that boast.  Also please note that the highest medal awarded was a Bronze star not a Victoria Cross!
 
"Ambushed outside Fallujah, Recon Marines endured ‘the fight of fights’

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-2981411.php

By Gidget Fuentes

Times staff writer

At first, little seemed amiss April 7 as Cpl. James "Eddie" Wright’s Bravo Company, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, escorted a 15-vehicle convoy of Humvees and seven-ton trucks loaded with fuel.

The men had spent the afternoon at Camp Fallujah, 1st Recon’s base, readying for the convoy and patrol. Their vehicles kicked up dust as the convoy pulled out of the walled camp and began its 10-mile trek.

From their five Humvees most without doors to provide a wide field of fire but with heavy machine guns mounted on turrets 2nd Platoon could see slivers of a simple rural life that marks much of central Iraq outside its cities.

They hoped for an uneventful ride to a supply point where they would hunt for enemy mortars. But the men of 1st Recon were also prepared for the worst to happen. It was early April, and they were in the Sunni Triangle, a hotbed of anti-American insurgency where a week earlier four American civilians were murdered and mutilated in Fallujah.

Their instincts would prove to be right. By the end of the afternoon, a platoon would lose its commander, a corporal’s heroic actions and cool headedness after losing his hands would earn him a Bronze Star, and a crew of Marines would lay down withering fire against insurgents who expected to walk away from the ambush they’d planned.

These are the actions of 1st Recon’s men, based on interviews in Iraq and supporting documents detailing the ambush.

Danger nearby

As the convoy rolled, enemy fire broke the quiet not far into their ride along the east bank of the Euphrates River. Gun vehicles quickly split off from the convoy and raced to flank the gunmen, hidden on the west side of the river.

A mile later, Capt. Brent Morel, 2nd Platoon’s commander, sensed something was wrong. The road, nicknamed "Boston," was bare of traffic, which in these parts of Iraq is a clear sign of nearby danger an ambush, an improved explosive device, a mine. With his order, his men dismounted and swept the area. The area was clean, the men returned to their Humvees, and the convoy rolled on.

The sun hung low in the western sky shortly before 4 p.m. as they passed two nondescript gas stations and large farm fields, crisscrossed by irrigation canals and ditches, that mark much of central Iraq. Then trouble met the men again. Volleys of lead rained on them as enemy machinegun fire, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars exploded around them.

It was an ambush.

Wright, in the lead humvee, and the other men turned their weapons to fire at the enemy across the field. "They launched everything at us right away, at the lead vehicles," recalled Gunnery Sgt. Daniel J. Griego, 37, 2nd platoon’s platoon sergeant.

Within 30 seconds, RPGs disabled the two lead Humvees, immediately wounding Wright and six others. In the continuing barrage, the platoon commander ran his shot-up vehicle and led a small team in a charge across the field, firing weapons and directing fire at enemy forces as they raced across the fields, climbing two 10-foot berms and wading chest-high through a muddy canal.

The ensuing firefight lasted 45 to 50 minutes and covered a kilometer grid square. When it was over, 2nd platoon commander Morel, a 6-foot-1 redhead from western Tennessee was dead at 27, shot in the chest by enemy machinegun fire. Wright was severely injured an RPG blew off both of his hands and broke his leg.

"It was the fight of fights," said Capt. Brad Richardson, 34, Bravo’s commander who helped coordinate close-air suppressive fire and evacuation.

The flanking attack

On seeing his platoon commander’s full-blown charge, it didn’t take seconds for Sgt. Leandro F. Baptista to act.

On vehicle and then on foot, Baptista, 24, twice charged his three-man team at

 
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Ehran       1/26/2007 12:12:45 PM
Fuel for the fire.  These are the men whom these Englishmen are replacing and tell us they are far superior to.  I hope for thier sake they will never have to live up to that boast.  Also please note that the highest medal awarded was a Bronze star not a Victoria Cross!
 
the last line doesn't help your cause at all mike given the us hands out medals much more freely than any of the commonwealth countries do ;)
 
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Mike From Brielle    Ehran   1/26/2007 1:05:12 PM
Within the U.S. Military it is well known that the USMC is by far the most stingy with issueing out medals.  Most of the higher medals are issued postumously.
 
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Mike From Brielle    In Addition... Ehran   1/26/2007 4:34:26 PM
Bombing hero dog gets V.C.


By TOM NEWTON DUNN
Defence Editor
January 26, 2007


A HERO dog has won an animal Victoria Cross for sniffing out a terrorist bomb — then sitting by it until help arrived.

Black labrador Sadie, nine, saved scores of troops by finding the primed package in Kabul.

It was planted as a secondary device to maim and kill at an earlier blast scene.

Animal charity PDSA nominated Sadie for the Dickin Medal after The Sun revealed her story.

She will receive the award from Princess Alexandra in London on February 6.

With her will be her handler, Lance Corporal Karen Yardley, of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, who was with her in Afghanistan. Karen, 26, of Irvine, Scotland, said: “I’m very proud of her.”

It will be the 61st time the highest gong for non-humans has been awarded since its creation in 1943.

The 62nd will be awarded posthumously to a German Shepherd named Lucky from the Malaya Campaign in the 1950s.

The loyal RAF police dog tracked down terrorists.


dailymail.co.uk
 
 
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GOP       1/26/2007 11:07:06 PM


 Also please note that the highest medal awarded was a Bronze star not a Victoria Cross!

 

the last line doesn't help your cause at all mike given the us hands out medals much more freely than any of the commonwealth countries do ;)



How many medals do you have? How many heroic actions have you done to win a medal? How many times have you faced death in combat? I am tired of this bs. For people who have never gone to war, never won any medals, never trained one day to compare all of these militaries to each other and say "Ours is better" is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. These "Englishmen" who say they are far superior to USMC Recon or the USMC unit inside of Fallujah are absolute jack-a**es and are also idiots. This air of superiority appears to be common with the British and US posters. I hate it, and so do the guys fighting for our countries.
 
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Ehran       1/28/2007 4:03:56 AM
mike for shame. not exactly relevant to the point is it.
 
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Ehran       1/28/2007 4:07:54 AM
GOP look up how many gongs ribbons and what not the usa gave out for the grenada operation and then come back and try to chide me about this with a straight face.  think the total was about 1.5 per person involved in the operation including sailors who never set foot on the island and personnel who never left their bases in the usa.
 
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